Guidance

The NICE guidance on skin cancer services outlines how healthcare services for people with skin tumours should be organised. The key recommendations include:

Cancer networks should establish two levels of multidisciplinary teams to care for patients.

Patients with a precancerous lesion should either be treated by their GP or referred

Patients who need specialist diagnosis should be referred to a doctor trained to diagnose skin cancer.

Skin cancer teams should work to agreed protocols

Protocols should cover the management of care for people in high-risk or special groups

Follow-up care should be agreed.

All patients and carers should have access to high quality information.

Information should be collected.

More research should be done.

May 2010

In May 2010 NICE published a partial update of this guidance. Recommendations and text relating to the management of low risk basal cell carcinoma (BCCs) in the community have been removed from the 2006 guidance and replaced by 'Improving outcomes for people with skin tumours including melanoma (update): the management of low-risk basal cell carcinomas in the community'. All remaining recommendations in the 2006 guidance are still valid. The updated guidance contains details of the methods and evidence used to develop the updated recommendations and text.